God's Story of the World
As the Bible Tells It
If the Bible is right, we are living in the middle of a story much bigger than we are. It is the story of a campaign we are to join--God's amazing, counter-intuitive, non-coercive campaign to save the world from itself.
Like any good story, this one has so many layers that no single perspective can capture it all. SYNC therefore gives seven versions of the story, each bringing out one particular layer of the many-layered good news of Jesus. Each version enriches our answer to the question, "Who are we if we see ourselves as recruits in Christ's campaign?"
The Bible tells us how the campaign has gone so far, how it works, what it means to join it, and what success will look like. SYNC exists for people who want to be in SYNC with this campaign story.
Who needs a "story of the world"?
People with meaning or purpose in their lives have already chosen a "story of the world". It shapes their lives, whether or not it is formally written into one book like the Bible. We don't understand any social, ethnic, religious, or political group until we know its version of the story of the world.
Neither science nor technology provides a story of the world, but that does not mean we don't need one. Individuals and societies who think science and technology are all we need eventually discover what the bedraggled man in the cartoon says as he rolls on his side in bed, "Alexa, give me one good reason to get up this morning."
If Alexa supplied that reason, the Alexa designers would rule the world, telling us all why to get up. NO! The right to choose our own story of the world is what makes us human.
Postmodernism claimed that all stories of the world are fabrications foisted on the public by power holders for their own hidden benefit. Postmodern writers urged us to suspect and deconstruct all grand stories of the world.
But postmodernism is already dead. Humans across our world have given up on it because they realized it gave them no basis to build anything. There has to be a story of the world. The question is, which one?
Seven ways to look at the biblical story of the world
SYNC offers seven different versions of the multi-layered story of God's campaign, one story that runs through the entire Bible.
Each version distills the 1500 or 2000 pages of the Bible to a two-minute read. Each one covers the same seven milestone events, but each emphasizes a different milestone as the central one.
It is like seven friends each telling you about a movie they saw together last night. Their overlapping descriptions are all truthful but none is complete on its own. You may use them in any combination or order to get a more complete picture.
As you will see, each panorama story page has three sections
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a "mini-story" version of about 100 words
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an "expanded version" of about 800 words
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some reflections about what to do if this story is true
Of course, none of these SYNC panorama stories is the final word on the subject. That's why we keep updating them, and we also encourage other people to adapt them for their own situations as they get deeper into the Bible. There is lots left to discover for yourself.
Enjoy! And marvel at how many layers this story has. These seven are only a few.
Are you in?
That is the question that any of the versions of the campaign story will help you answer. In fact, each version has a "Reflections" section at the end inviting you to celebrate if you are already in or to say, "I'm in," if you are not.
The preferred option for many people would be to write their own story of their own life or to adopt the story of some other group or campaign, perhaps including Jesus as far as he fits in. The bad news is that Jesus did not leave that option open. The good news is that joining his campaign on his all-or-nothing terms will pay off for us and for a better world.
